


Takashi Shirogane’s Battle to Defend the Universe Ended in a Fight to Save Himself—And Others

by AnnaofAza



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Fix-It, M/M, Mental health is important!, News Media, Post-Season/Series 08 Finale, brief mention of Curtis/Shiro
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-15
Updated: 2019-03-15
Packaged: 2019-11-18 09:18:36
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,090
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18117854
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AnnaofAza/pseuds/AnnaofAza
Summary: Star pilot and the first of many broken records. Voltron paladin and defender of the universe. Youngest admiral in the history of the Galaxy Garrison. But Shirogane isn’t done yet.





	Takashi Shirogane’s Battle to Defend the Universe Ended in a Fight to Save Himself—And Others

**PHOENIX, Ariz.**   **-** The last time he was on Earth, Takashi Shirogane was the Galaxy Garrison’s rising star.

The cadet with the single-highest simulation scores. The youngest pilot to lead a mission into space. The record holder for the fastest orbital velocity.

He soon became the face of the government militarized space agency, travelling across the country to recruit the next generation of astro-explorers—including his future husband, Keith Kogane, representative of the intergalactical humanitarian organization Blade of Marmora.

Now, Shirogane stands in front of the ship that inspired him to explore the universe, the _Calypso._ The longest mission of its kind at the time, a total of three years, took astronauts to the 79 moons of Jupiter. He remembers watching the launch on the family’s datapad, mouth open in fascination and carpet digging into his knees.

From that day forward, he wanted to go to space. No one thought he’d make it past his twenties.

But Shirogane has been enough to last several lifetimes—and this is, in fact, his second.

And he wants to make the most of it.

**Through time and space**

_(photo: Takashi Shirogane, 22, enters the Persephone on the day of the Kerberos Mission launch. His face is alight with unconcealed joy, dark bangs painstakingly combed back. One hand is raised in a wave.)_

Shirogane still remembers that day.

The orange-and-purple sunrise. The flashes and clicks of cameras and recording datapads. The stiffness of his lieutenant’s uniform, sweat dripping down his stiff, military-regulation spine. The “long-winded” speeches, the crowd of lucky Garrison students who were able to see the mission off, the nakedness of the space where his dog tags used to lay. The Holts posing for one last family portrait before the launch.

It was “a day of the glorious unknown,” as then-Garrison Commander Mitch Iverson stated in his closing remarks.

Little did anyone know it would become a symbolic day of tragedy.

Following the failure of the Kerberos Mission, Shirogane, along with two of the crew members, was presumed dead. The Galaxy Garrison cited the cause as a “pilot error.”

Shirogane says he doesn’t blame them for the cover-up, though his fiancé and friends remain bitter.

“It was messed up, the way they hid it like that,” Katherine “Pidge” Holt declared through a comm call. Even years later, with her and her family safe on Earth, the memory brings clenched teeth and tears behind her glasses. “They scrubbed the footage, lied to the world. They let us grieve without any answers.”

But Shirogane came back, in a tiny Galra—though no one knew what it exactly was at the time—escape pod with a cybertronic right arm, a pink scar across his face, a shock of white hair, and gray prison rags.

After a daring escape, led by the famed Voltron paladins, Shirogane was off to space again—this time, to fight in a galaxy-wide war with robotic lions, two aliens that included the now-Queen of Altea, and a haze of memories of his captivity, which included fighting in a gladiatorial-style arena for the entertainment of then-Emperor Zarkon.

Shirogane, understandably, rarely brings it up, side-stepping that year.

The public only knows snippets: Shirogane is often quoted in speeches that those who held him captive are not representative of the Galra Republic of now, nor Daizabaal. Matthew Holt, who initially ended up in the same location as Shirogane, occasionally notes his gratitude to his friend for saving his life. And Galaxy Garrison’s redacted files, released by an anonymous whistleblower five years ago, reveal panicked ramblings before Shirogane was tranquilized in order to be quarantined, then questioned. (Iverson has apologized for his part in this incident throughout the years.)

However, Shirogane stepped into his role as the first commander of Voltron, leading his team multiple times against Zarkon before his own untimely death and later resurrection. 

And when he returned to Earth for the third time, Shirogane was promoted to captain, during the Galra occupation of Earth and battle against Honerva.

_(photo: Takashi Shirogane salutes a delegation of Olkari during Altea’s annual peace summit last year. Beside him is Queen Allura and her newly-wedded husband, Lance McClain. All have juniberries on their lapels.)_

**After the war**

Shirogane’s star seemed to rise further and further. He was promoted to admiral, married a member of his bridge crew, retired from the Garrison with honors, and was hailed as a war hero.

“Many have been lost, but not in vain. Because of their sacrifice, many will live on,” Shirogane declared in his famed speech at the launch of _Atlas_. His voice was clear and commanding, and he cut a bold figure in his dress uniform, hands behind his back, with the Voltron paladins standing behind him. “I make you this promise now: we will return triumphant.”

Despite Shirogane’s confident words that day, he believed the exact opposite of himself. Outwardly, he was the same faithful leader and friend, albeit a bit distant and quieter.

Some assumed it was because of the war. Others thought it was understandable for Shirogane to take a step back, that he needed time to process being dead, watching an impostor take over his life, and be resurrected in said impostor’s body.

Shirogane still felt as if he wasn’t in control. “I drifted,” he says, “like an asteroid floating through space.”

In addition, his body was free of the ticking clock of his chronic debilitating disease. He had a second lease on life—and worried he wasn’t making the most of it. He saw his teammates move onto bigger and busier careers, many of them off-planet. There were no more battles to fight, no missions to go to—only the slow-moving process of reconstruction.

He was on Earth, grounded in an era of peace, but still unsure _why_ he wasn’t happy.

So he pushed himself. Worked longer hours at the Garrison. Went on months-long sojourns into space. Grabbed onto milestones he thought would slip past his fingertips.

But he was fading, fast.

He dropped weight, so much that his clothes sagged on his shoulders. He spent entire days in bed, with the blinds drawn and door locked. He took the occasional hoverbike ride for week-long trips in the canyon near the Garrison. He paced the floor of his one-story house until nearly dawn, after another round of nightmares or sleepless nights. He stopped talking to his former teammates and coworkers, even missing the annual tradition of Peace Day on Altea.

Shirogane says his then-husband tried to get him help, but he refused to accept it. Eventually, the couple mutually separated, then officially divorced due to “incompatibility,” according to public records. (Curtis Santos, now stationed overseas, has declined interviews.)

After the divorce, Shirogane was adrift. He had no job. He had no husband. His friends were scattered to the winds. He was alone again.

**A new defender**

It was Keith Kogane who saved him.

“I don’t think anyone knew what to say, how to approach me,” Shirogane says. “Keith was the one who took me aside. He knew I needed a hand, and he wanted to help.”

Kogane took a leave of absence from the Blades, the two reconnecting through a series of off-planet adventures.

“He made me love the stars again,” Shirogane says, with a fond smile on his lips. He fiddles with his ring, a shiny black dotted with silver specks. “Or realized I loved them the whole time.”

_(photo from social media: Takashi Shirogane and Keith Kogane strike a pose reminiscent of Charlie’s Angels. Both are wearing oversized sunglasses, along with matching plushes of the Black Lion. In the background, there’s a clear pink sky and a lit-up Ferris Wheel.)_

After their trip, Shirogane returned to the Garrison and asked to be reinstated in “any capacity.”

For a while, he taught piloting classes, got back in the saddle with his old ship, and entered therapy, but soon found himself gravitating towards a newer subject, one that struck close to his heart.

It happened while helping the Holt sibling team train the next generation of Legendary Defenders.

“You take these kids who are away from home, being drilled in some of the toughest and rigorous curriculum in the world, and the old attitude was to let them sink or swim,” Shirogane says, shaking his head. “None of them deserve to drown.”

At first, he received pushback. Did working hard mean anything anymore? Did the military need ‘softness’ and ‘coddling’? Wasn’t this process a normal part of coming-of-age initiation, one Shirogane went through himself as a cadet?

Shirogane dug his feet in. Eventually, he—aided by Kogane, the Holts, and his reconnected friends—managed to carve out a space where cadets and officers could seek effective mental health treatment through traditional means, balanced with group meet-ups, one-on-one counseling, or a simple weekly check-in. He recruited therapists and peer counselors alike, including his friend and Queen Allura’s husband, Lance McClain.

“Sometimes you’re so insecure that you lash out, hide away, or become a complete a –- hole,” McClain stated. “It’s working to make sure you take care of yourself but also take responsibility for your actions.”

Shirogane agrees.

“Look at my glasses,” he says, pushing the thin golden frames up the bridge of his nose. “Should I tell myself I can cope without them? Drive a car? Fly a ship? Or do I get help?”

Shirogane has spoken openly about the stigma, particularly within the Asian and male communities, how mental health aid equates to weakness and shame: “You don’t want to seek help, and as a result, it becomes this cycle that spirals and walls that rise higher and higher. You don’t trust others and you don’t trust yourself, but you still have these moments of _why doesn’t anyone notice? Does anyone care?_

But you put on this mask. You don’t want to be seen as weak. And it gets worse, being alone.”

Kogane is no stranger to feeling alone, which is why he was one of the main proponents of Shirogane’s mission from the beginning.

Orphaned at a young age and bounced from foster home to group home to the halls of the Garrison, he often felt like an outsider. Being confirmed as half-Galra only fueled those feelings in the early days of being a paladin.

“I guess it was a sign that I wasn’t made to be on Earth,” Kogane said, as part of a video blog that the Voltron paladins recorded to chronicle their journeys.

But throughout the years in space, Kogane grew more confident in himself, eventually replacing Shirogane as the head paladin of Voltron, becoming a key member of the Blades, and making his foray into interplanet diplomacy and youth mental health.

“We saved each other,” Kogane said at a press conference announcing the opening of the Galaxy Garrison’s revamped mental health program. “Shiro’s been the one who’s never given up on me, not once, ever since we met, and everyone deserves that same unwavering faith and support.”

_(photo: Takashi Shirogane and Keith Kogane stand hand-in-hand, in front of the Calypso. Shirogane’s head is turned a little from the camera. He is looking at Kogane.)_

**A brighter future**

These days, Shirogane is still piloting the new program on Earth, occasionally travelling on diplomatic missions with Kogane and the Blades of Marmora.

“We want to continue to spread Allura’s mission of peace across the galaxy,” Shirogane says.

Despite the rumors of Kogane being tapped for the next leader of Daizabaal, it looks as if he’ll refuse that seat, opting for a life on both Earth and in the stars.

Meanwhile, Shirogane and Kogane plan to marry soon, though they’re tight-lipped about the exact date, time, and location.

“Close family and friends only,” Kogane says, with a wry smirk on his face, nudging Shirogane in the ribs. His eyes, known for their fierce passion while talking about subjects from hover-biking to tyrannical regimes, are soft in the fading daylight.

Shirogane’s eyes are equally fond. They share a long, conspiratorial, private glance before the buzz of a datapad passes through the quiet.

With a sheepish smile, Shirogane apologizes for the interruption, then checks his messages with a quick swipe of his finger. It’s from Hunk Garrett, reminding them that they have a standing appointment for dinner with their friends. He’s even made an old favorite, space goo.

Shirogane and Kogane say their goodbyes, waving once before heading out to the parking lot, to their twin pairs of beat-up red-and-white hoverbikes.

And with two echoing purrs, they speed off into the horizon, dipping into stars. 

**Author's Note:**

> This is...just something that's been in my head for a while, partly inspired by a wonderful profile of Gracie Gold in The New York Times. (Do they still exist in this universe's future? Not sure, but there will always be mass media. And newspapers, for those space-age hipsters.)


End file.
